This Danish police procedural, the second in the series about Carl Mørck and the Q Department, has not been translated into English yet, but the first one, Mercy, should be published in Britain in May.

Carl Mørck´s summer holiday has ended, and he is already looking forward to the next holiday, but his mysterious assistant Assad is as keen as ever to sink his teeth in a new case. The two-man army in the basement is even reinforced in the form of Rose, a talkative steamroller on high heels.

Assad persuades his boss to reopen a case from 1987 when two siblings, aged 17 and 18, were beaten to death in a cottage. The main suspects were a group of privileged boarding school students, but apparently the case should never have been sent on to Mørck´s table as one of the group confessed to the murders several years ago. And as soon as they begin asking questions, they are told to stay clear of this case – a request which tends to have the opposite effect on Carl Mørck.

In between the police work we get glimpses of the story from the eighties: six high school students who rebel against the strict rules by smoking cannabis. A young pupil threatens to tell, and the group experiences the first kick of violence.

Twenty years later a couple have died violently while three belong to the ´pheasant segment´; they lead an upper-class life so sheltered that they must resort to hunting to get a bit of excitement. And then there is Kimmie, the only woman among them, a shabby bag lady, yet a threat to the successful trio.

Adler-Olsen delivers an engaging plot with a mix of traditional – and not so traditional – police work, including a fine sense of humour and characters you want to meet again. Soon!

The book was a Christmas gift from my children (they have a great taste). .